Same-sex divorce raises new questions for states

[angela146]

Not the first same-sex divorce but this one is in a state that does not yet recognize same-sex marriage.

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) -- A lesbian couple married in Massachusetts has filed for divorce in Rhode Island, setting up a legal conundrum for judges in a state where the laws are silent on the legality of same-sex marriage.

Margaret Chambers and Cassandra Ormiston of Providence were married after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court legalized gay marriage starting in 2004.

They filed for divorce in Rhode Island on October 23, citing irreconcilable differences, Chambers' attorney, Louis Pulner, said Wednesday. Ormiston declined to comment.

Rhode Island Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah Jeremiah Jr. has yet to decide whether his court has jurisdiction and said he believes it is the first filing for a same-sex divorce in the state. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for December 5.

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[Stella_Omega]

That will be interesting...

If they can be divorced in Rhode Island, the state will have recognized a same-sex marriage.

 

[angela146]

That will be interesting...

If they can be divorced in Rhode Island, the state will have recognized a same-sex marriage.

And if they can't get divorced, Rhode Island will be *perpetuating* a same-sex marriage.

 

[tanyachrs]

I wonder how intentionally they're doing this.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I wonder how intentionally they're doing this.

Who- the women? I wonder as well...

THinking about this, Rhode Island will probably tell the women that it doesn't recognise same-sex marriages anyway, and that as far as it's concerned, they were never married. The women will have to go to Mass for their divorce.

 

[SweetPrettyAss]

Who- the women? I wonder as well...

THinking about this, Rhode Island will probably tell the women that it doesn't recognise same-sex marriages anyway, and that as far as it's concerned, they were never married. The women will have to go to Mass for their divorce.

I think so too. The courts will say something like "You can't get divorced. You're not married." It might be something of a ploy to ger RI to recognize same-sex marriage.

They may get around that by issuing an annulment. That would say that the marriage was never legal and therefore never existed. I think this is what is done in the case of a bigamous marriage, which is also not legal.

 

[matriarch]

The gosling and I could only dissolve our UK civil partnership ( a marriage in all but name, as far as we're concerned) by going through the same procedure as a straight couple who want to divorce.

It was all laid out in the new bill that legalised the partnership.

Adultery, irreconcilable differences, cruelty.....just the same as marriage.

 

[erise]

Adultery, irreconcilable differences, cruelty.....just the same as marriage.

I'm sorry, but that last line looks SO wrong out of context.